The standard name ‘Tiger Prawn’ refers to the species Penaeus esculentus, P. semisulcatus and P. japonicus and the latter is not caught commercially in Australian waters. Brown Tiger Prawns are endemic to tropical and subtropical waters of Australia, while Grooved Tiger Prawns have a wider Indo–West Pacific distribution. There is some genetic evidence of separation of Brown Tiger Prawn stocks from the east and west coasts of Australia (Ward et al 2006). Since the biological stock structure for these species is uncertain, assessment of stock status is presented at the management unit level.

The brown tiger prawn is generally regarded as an endemic Australian species. It has a distribution around the top half of Australia and whilst the electrophoretic study on this species found no genetic differences amongst regions, there are a large number of functionally independent stocks. Each of these stocks is associated with relatively sheltered waters where there are also substantial amounts of seagrass. This species is generally found in coastal waters down to approximately 60m but has been recorded to a depth of 200m and is commonly found over mud or sandy mud substrates by trawlers (Buckworth et al. 2013).

The most recent assessment of Brown Tiger Prawn in the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery (Commonwealth) used two separate modelling approaches, producing two separate estimates of MSY and effort at MSY (Taylor et al. 2007; Flood and Mazur 2014).

This fishery was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council system in November 2012. Click here to link to the MSC fishery page and to learn more about the MSC fishery certification .